Effect of light and the cer10 mutation on the growth rate of Arabidopsis thaliana

Jenna K. Bains, Selam Joseph, Shayan Shokoohi, Ian A. Villamin

Abstract

The presence of light and the presence of a mutation are two of several factors that influence the growth rate of A. thaliana. Light affects the rate of photosynthesis directly whereas the presence of the cer10 mutation affects photosynthesis indirectly. In the case of the cer10 mutation, there is an absence of epicuticular wax that is responsible for water retention. As such, we sought to investigate the factors of light and the cer10 mutation on the growth rate of A. thaliana seedlings. We set up four different treatment groups: wild type with light, wild type with no light, mutant with light, and mutant with no light. The lengths of A. thaliana stems were measured five times during a two-week period. From this, the growth rates of each treatment group was calculated to be 0.20 ± 0.08 mm/day for the wild type light treatment, 0.07 ± 0.06 mm/day for the wild type no light treatment, 0.17 ± 0.08 mm/day for the mutant light treatment, and 0.05 ± 0.02 mm/day for the mutant no light treatment. Our results indicate that the presence of light increases the growth rate of both wild-type and mutant A. thaliana (two-way ANOVA, p = 0.00124); however the presence of the cer10 mutation does not affect the growth rate of A. thaliana, and the effect of light is the same in the wild type and mutant (p > 0.05).